The "Petro"

This is a step in the right direction but it's still money based on fossil fuel energy instead of thin air as the dollar is. At some point it will be realized that there is a limitless abundance of convertible energy from the sun and that a scarcity value system is no longer necessary. Meanwhile, how long will it be before the U.S. invades Venezuela to keep this from happening?

February 23, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - As this article goes to print, Globovision TV quotes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announcing the launch of a new cryptocurrency, the “Petro Oro”. It will be backed by precious metals. The launch of the new cryptomoney is scheduled for the next week. No details of quantities offered for sale are available at this point.

Imagine an international currency backed by energy? By a raw material that the entire world needs, not gold – which has hardly any productive use, but whose value is mostly speculative – not hot air like the US dollar. Not fiat money like the US-dollar and the Euro largely made by private banks without any economic substance whatsoever, and which are coercive. But a currency based on the very source for economic output – energy.

We are talking about a seismic paradigm shift. Its potential is unfathomable. The move away from the US-dollar hegemony might result in an implosion of the western monetary structure as we know it. It may stop the predator empire of the United States in its tracks, by simply decimating her economy of fraud, built on military might, exploitation and colonization of the world, on racism, and on a bulldozing scruple-less killing machine. The Petro, a secured cryptocurrency based on energy that everybody needs, might become the precursor for an international payment and trading scheme towards a more balanced and equitable approach to worldwide socioeconomy development.

We are talking about a seismic paradigm shift. Its potential is unfathomable. The move away from the US-dollar hegemony might result in an implosion of the western monetary structure as we know it. It may stop the predator empire of the United States in its tracks, by simply decimating her economy of fraud, built on military might, exploitation and colonization of the world, on racism, and on a bulldozing scruple-less killing machine. The Petro, a secured cryptocurrency based on energy that everybody needs, might become the precursor for an international payment and trading scheme towards a more balanced and equitable approach to worldwide socioeconomy development.

Seriously Ed...What drugs are you taking that you actually believe this crap?

It's not a bad idea from Maduro as he tries to circumvent the financial sanctions facing his government, but it's pretty much doomed to, if not failure, at least irrelevancy. No invasion necessary.

First, I may have more precious metals in my molars than Venezuela has in its vaults. They have very little to back a currency.

Second, while Venezuela has a humongous amount of proven reserves (I think maybe even more than Saudi Arabia), it can't get enough oil out of the ground to back a currency. If it could get enough out, the country wouldn't be in the dire straits it's in.

Venezuela is just another failed experiment in socialism. The laws of economics are immutable, and the Petro isn't going to bail the country out.

The dollar is not the world's trading and reserve currency because we imported a lot of oil. It was because it was the only currency anyone had faith in after WW II. That's no longer the case, but an argument that starts off so wrong is hard to take seriously.

And as Steven pointed out, this just a futures contract priced in Yuan.

Anbang tried to buy troubled insurer Genworth, but was stopped by state insurance regulators in New York, Virginia and Delaware. Nobody could even figure out who owned Anbang, yet it grew like topsy and even had Chinese government financial support.

Anbang tried to buy troubled insurer Genworth, but was stopped by state insurance regulators in New York, Virginia and Delaware. Nobody could even figure out who owned Anbang, yet it grew like topsy and even had Chinese government financial support.

The dollar is not backed by gold, if the yuan is and Petro contracts can be converted to gold, nobody will trust the dollar.

I realize that according to Technocracy Inc., that scarcity will no longer exist if we convert to a solar-based energy currency system.

Be that as it may, the petro-yuan is not energy based, but gold-based. And a gold-based currency system necessarily entails rationing. If the economy of a nation with a gold-backed currency becomes too strong (like ours was in the 1960s), imports increase and gold flows out. As gold flows out, the country's central bank needs to cut the supply of currency.

MV = PQ.

If the money supply (M) falls and the velocity of money (V) stays the same, than either/both Price (P) falls (deflation) or GDP falls (deflation). Do the means justify the ends? You willing to have your countrymen hurt to accomplish your goal?

More to the point, if the yuan were to be established as the world's number 1 currency, what makes you think a Chinese government inimical to the market is going to allow a different money system? Better to allow the free market. If technocracy is right, your vision will develop on its own.

This is the thing. Steven noticed it, and I'm noticing it too. There's a bite to your posts, Ed. I hate to assume bad faith, but are you actually rooting for our country-mine AND yours-to fail?

No, I don't want our country to fail. On the contrary, I want it to have a much higher standard of living than exists in the money system. If you understood Technocracy, you would not ask that question. The failure of the money system is going to happen, if we can recognise that and plan ahead to implement an energy system, the transition will be less painful lthan pretending the money system will last forever. The latter invites catastrophe for my country and is why I try my best to prevent that from happening.

I get that you think the establishment of a gold based standard compared to "fiat" money "backed by nothing but thin air" will lead painlessly to your desired destination, but rooting for the petro-yuan to displace the dollar isn't the way.

Reminds me of the "dictatorship of the proletariat." The Chinese government hasn't yielded its power to that either.

My mistake. I was thinking of Venezuela's crypto Petro. China has more than enough gold to cover Yuan denominated futures trading, but not nearly enough to make the state-regulated Yuan the world's reserve and standard trading currency. See the chart I linked to above.